PENDAKWA RAYA Pendakwa Raya TERTUDUH LIM SIONG KIM
9 cases cited
(0 SG, 9 foreign)
Catchwords
CRIMINAL LAW: Murder – Penal Code – Section 302 as amended by Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846) – Section 299 culpable homicide distinguished from murder under Section 300 – Reliance on Limb (c) of Section 300 – Whether bodily injury intended to be inflicted sufficient in ordinary course of nature to cause death – Four ingredients of murder – Sentencing discretion between death and imprisonment of 30 to 40 years with whipping – Whether case falls within "rarest of the rare" threshold – Whether wide judicial discretion under Section 302 read with Sections 34 and 39 of Act 846 ought to be curtailed by "rarest of the rare" doctrine – Consideration of aggravating and mitigating factors – Deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution and restitution as objects of sentencing – Absence of premeditation – Betrayal of intimate relationship as aggravating factor – Sustained and calculated disposal of body as aggravating factor – Benchmarking against comparable sentencing precedents CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: Duty of successor judge – Trial part-heard before different judges – Whether succeeding judge may reopen or revisit prima facie finding made by predecessor judge – Section 180(1) Criminal Procedure Code – Maximum evaluation at close of prosecution case – Section 182A(1) Criminal Procedure Code – Duty of court at conclusion of trial to consider all evidence adduced – Whether prosecution proved case beyond reasonable doubt – Whether accused's explanation cast reasonable doubt on prosecution's case – Whether defence's challenge to admissibility of evidence at defence stage amounts to impermissible retrospective re-evaluation of prosecution case – Sentence to run from date of arrest under Section 282(d) Criminal Procedure Code EVIDENCE: Circumstantial evidence – Three-limb test for conviction founded on circumstantial evidence – Whether chain of evidence complete so as to exclude conclusions consistent with innocence – Cumulative and combined strength of independent strands of evidence – Section 8 Evidence Act 1950 – Conduct evidence – Whether accused's act of leading police to location of body admissible as conduct independently of Section 27 – Whether Section 8 may be relied upon to achieve indirectly what Section 27 fails to achieve – Section 27 Evidence Act 1950 – Admissibility of information leading to discovery – Whether communication through intermediary interpreters renders statement hearsay – DNA evidence – Unchallenged chain of custody and forensic methodology – Weight of sworn evidence of accused as witness – Assessment of credibility, demeanour and internal consistency – Third-party suspect narrative unsupported by independent evidence – Standard of reasonable doubt – Whether prosecution's case excludes every reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence
Judges (1)
Counsel (11)
Aida & G Ravi Firm Freda Sabapathy & Co. Firm Pejabat Penasihat Undang-Undang Negeri Johor Firm Aida binti Haji Hassan Counsel Accused Freda Josephine Gonzales Counsel Accused Lydia binti Salleh Counsel Prosecution Muhammad Syafiq bin Mohd Ghazali Counsel Prosecution Ravichanthiran a/l Ganesan Counsel Accused Sarawanakumar a/l Kanan Counsel Accused Umar Faiz bin Abdul Kohar Counsel Prosecution Yvonne Kee Yee Huan Counsel Accused
Parties (2)
Statutes Cited
Cases Cited (9)
MY (6)
[1963] 1 MLRH 400 [1980] 2 MLJ 276 [2003] 2 MLJ 65 [2009] 2 MLJ 367 [2017] 4 MLJ 250 [2018] 8 CLJ 186
IN (3)
AIR 1958 SC 465 AIR 1966 SC 1874 AIR 1979 SC 400
Judgment
Read the full judgment on the official Malaysia Courts portal.
Read on eJudgmentSource: eJudgment (ja-45b-1-02-2020)